India Day 5: Mandi - McLeod Ganj

After a relaxing breakfast in the alfresco restaurant at the Raj Mahal, where we stayed last night, we took a car (with driver) for the 4 hour drive up to McLeod Ganj.

The roads, peppered with people, monkeys, cows, other drivers and the occasional Sadhu, were very steep and narrow, winding their way tightly up and down the mountains. Even just being a passenger is exhausting as you hold on for dear life and once you have conquered one mountain there are plenty more in between you and your destination.

As we arrived in McLeod just a few hundred yards from our hotel the taxi acquired a flat tyre. Luckily there were more than enough willing people to carry our bags for 50 rupees which we gratefully accepted. We then settled into our room at the Green Hotel before heading out for a quick buzz around the town to get a feel for where we were.

McLeod Ganj is about 4 miles from Dharamsala in northern India. It is the home of the Tibetan government in exile and the Dalai Lama. He was forced to flee to McLeod in 1959, 10 years after the Chinese invaded Tibet. The Dalai Lama is currently in America where he is to be awarded The Congressional Gold Medal of Honor on Wednesday (much to the annoyance of the Chinese government). So once Miss Tibet is out of the way the town will be buzzing with even more celebrations.

We decided to try some traditional Tibetan food for dinner. Oly and I had noodle soup. There are two types of noodle soup, one, Gya-thuk, is a flat, short noodle and the other, Thukpa, is long chow mien like. Oly had the former and I had the latter. In retrospect I really wish I had his, mine smelt and tasted like the drains here and I don't think I am very well...

Emelie